Stolen, Snatched Moments
by a-perfect-melody
Summary: He's bright blue hair and slightly burnt biscuits and ice cold cocktails on warm summer nights and she's burning crimson curls and feathery pink dream catchers and little polka dot dresses and he's Teddy Lupin and she's Lily Luna and together they're everything they shouldn't be.


**Stolen, Snatched Moments**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and accept no credit towards it. I am not J.K. Rowling or any of her affiliates.**

 **Warning: several instances of bad language and mild descriptions of sex. Nothing too graphic, tho. Also, people cheat on other people in this fic.**

 **I've never written this pairing before (although I've read a lot of them and do ship them!) so let me know if you want more.**

 **Reviews make my day. If you like my story enough to favourite, maybe you could also leave a review?**

.

.

It's getting a bit old, really.

Each year, on the eve of cousin Rosie's birthday, two strangers meet in a garden shed.

He's bright blue hair and slightly burnt biscuits and ice cold cocktails on warm summer nights and she's burning crimson curls and feathery pink dream catchers and little polka dot dresses and he's Teddy Lupin and she's Lily Luna and together they're everything they shouldn't be.

He's twenty nine and works a nine to five desk job at the Ministry and spends his summers with his adopted uncle Charlie's dragons in Romania.

She's just turned nineteen and is wild and unpredictable and drifts around like a tumbleweed, not knowing what she wants in life.

And, if they're going by clichés, he should end up with perfect, pristine Victoire and she should marry enemy-turned-lover Scorpius Malfoy but they're Teddy and Lily and they have never set much store by stereotypes.

In any other situation, he's just Harry Potter's godson, son of the fallen, and Hufflepuff head boy, and she's daddy's darling and the Gryffindor sweetheart but that one night in the garden hut, they shed their skin and become simply Teddy and Lily, breathing, kissing, and trying to stay alive.

And it's sort of their fucked up tradition each year; smeared lipstick, stomped out cigarettes, and thumping hearts in the half concealed darkness.

And when it's over, they're back to playing happy families with her cousins, making sure that nobody, ever, would guess that Teddy Lupin and Lily Luna have been choreographing an affair for four years now.

.

.

It started as a rebellion.

She was fifteen, drunk off of her first kiss and addicted to the cigarettes she couldn't stop smoking.

He was twenty five, fresh out of his recent relationship and bored with the life he was living.

It started as a way to get the fire back into their bellies.

And for the rest of the year, when it's not Rosie's birthday, Lily has an on off fling with Lysander and Teddy occasionally snogs Louis in the break room at lunch but when they're together, it's like the world lives for those stolen, snatched moments in Grandma Weasley's garden shed.

.

.

"You look beautiful."

If Lily closes her eyes, she can almost imagine that Teddy is talking to her.

But, as it is, it's not Rosie's birthday so when Lily looks around, she sees Teddy snaking an arm around slim and giggly Vicki, who's had one too many firewhiskeys to realise that Teddy is only paying her attention to make Lily jealous.

Well, Lily thinks, two can play at that game.

She grabs Scorpius as he is ogling Rose and kisses him in front of everybody, ignoring his surprised cry and running her hands through his hair.

When they break apart, it's like they were never together; no smudged makeup or sweaty faces or panting breaths; just Scorpius looking pleased and Rosie on the verge of tears.

Sometimes, Lily really hates herself.

.

.

Lysander is gentleness and flowers and kindness and each morning - when they're actually still talking - he leaves tulips by her work station and takes her out to dinner every Tuesday and Friday.

She doesn't have the heart to tell him that she has severe hay-fever and she prefers takeout but, of course, only Teddy knows this.

"The Three Broomsticks' got a karaoke sort of thing on tonight." Lysander tries, touching her arm. "Remember, L, that's where we first met."

He calls her L. She can't stand it but maybe that's just because Teddy always calls her Lily.

"What? Hmm- oh, yeah, absolutely." Lily's too busy staring at Teddy's retreating back as he crosses the room, handing a sheaf of papers to his boss.

"He's a great writer, isn't he?" Lysander nudges her, oblivious. "I couldn't put that Quibbler article down yesterday."

Lily starts. Taking a job anywhere where Teddy Lupin is present is a disaster in the making but she can't pretend that her heart doesn't beat a little faster when she hears his footsteps.

.

.

Teddy's a good journalist.

Vicki tells him everyday, his boss maybe on Mondays, and Lily once a year.

He likes writing but perhaps he should ask for more because all he's ever given is a box of facts and a story to type up.

"I'd like to be active." He tells his boss on Saturday, ignoring Lily who's standing a few feet behind him, admiring those bloody tulips Lysander has sent her ( _she's allergic, you idiot_ ), and his boss laughs.

"Don't be silly, Edward-" (he _hates_ that name) "-you'd do much better behind a screen. You're a pipe and slippers sort of man."

He can almost hear Lily's sniggers echoing through his brain.

.

.

Desk job life does not suit Lily Luna.

She's supposed to be a sort of administrative assistant (hah!) to a big cheese on the top floor but all she spends her days doing is scribbling daisies on her notepad and rearranging her ever growing amount of stationary which clutters up her desk.

"You do actually have a job, don't you, Lils?" Harry asks one day as he pokes his head round the door of her office, his Head Auror badge and his accomplishments beaming down at her. "You're not just hanging around until they kick you out?"

Fat chance. Lily wants to achieve something in this life.

She pushes back from the table.

"Don't be silly, daddy." She says and goes over to kiss his cheek. "I make people's coffee." Lily pulls a face at her father that none of her co-workers can see. Harry frowns.

"Bit sexist, isn't it? Don't tell Hermione about this."

Lily grins.

"Nah, daddy, it's fine. I draw a lot and I talk to Lysander, not much else."

"Hmm." Harry says and raises an eyebrow. "Your boss works for the Quibbler, right?"

"Yup. Like Teddy." She hopes she doesn't linger on his name.

"Hold tight." Harry says and disappears.

Next day, her boss saunters in, pronounces her drawings "passable" and tells her that they don't need an illustrator "that's _so_ 1970s" but they do need a photographer for their new investigative reporter and it's almost the same thing.

Not really, but Lily's bored with her life so she'll take what she can get.

.

.

It's Monday when his boss slaps the paper on his desk.

"Job, Edward." He booms and claps him on the back. "Investigative report. Possible Death Eaters."

Unlikely, Teddy thinks, Harry rounded up the last of them years ago. Still, it's not a desk job, and he won't have to go stir crazy staring at Lily.

"I'll take it." He says and his boss smiles.

"Excellent. Your cameraman- ahem, _woman_ -will meet you by the front entrance. Take a quill."

.

.

Lily dresses up for the day in skinny jeans and a tight white t-shirt, her hair pulled back in a high ponytail.

She counts on being beautiful.

She doesn't count on seeing Teddy with his hands shoved in his pockets, leaning against the post where she was told to meet her journalist.

No. Oh, _hell_ no.

"Lily?" He says as she clips towards him in her trainers, her hair swinging back and forth and batting her in the face.

Merlin, it feels good to hear him say her name.

"Teddy." She greets, politely, friendly-like.

They're nothing but acquaintances outside Grandma Weasley's garden shed. "How are you?"

This is what they been reduced to. Small talk and idle chatter all while she's remembering the way he kissed her in the shed last year.

"Who are you waiting for?" Teddy blurts our, ignoring her question, and, as their eyes meet, both of them know the answer.

"I guess I'm your photographer, then."

Lily says with a nervous smile and tugs self consciously at her t-shirt.

Teddy manages a weak thumbs up.

.

.

Awkward doesn't even begin to cover it.

Teddy's been so used to admiring Lily Luna from a distance, saying hello to her at gatherings, and generally avoiding her, with the exception of those magical nights on Rosie's birthday, that being stuck on a stakeout behind a bush with her is

uncomfortable, to say the least.

Not to mention that she's wearing this really short t-shirt and blue skinny jeans and she looks absolutely stunning and he. can't. stop. staring.

"Nothing's happening." Lily says after half an hour and fiddles with her camera. "Is it always this boring?"

"I don't usually do investigative work." Teddy tells her, flipping his notebook open. "I'm a desk job guy."

"Oh." Lily says and falls silent and it's painfully obvious how little she knows about him and how much he knows about her.

.

.

For two people who have been- to put it bluntly -fucking for four years, they don't actually know how to act round one another.

She tries to talk about school but he was the boring, rule abiding Hufflepuff, and she was the troublemaking, irritating Gryffindor and the only things they seem to have in common are their parents of the past and Grandma Weasley's old garden shed.

"You still seeing Lysander?" Teddy says after some time, an edge to his voice. Lily nods.

"Think so. He's taking me out on Friday. For dinner."

"You don't like restaurants." He says flatly and Lily finds it sad that a boy who she has sex with once a year and makes polite chit chat with at parties knows more about her than her boyfriend of god knows how long.

"How's Louis?" She asks quickly, an afterthought. Teddy shrugs.

"Fine. He sends his love as usual."

Lily doesn't want to tell him how much it hurts that he's fucking her cousin.

She and Teddy have never been official or exclusive so she shouldn't be jealous, can't be jealous.

There's a reason her eyes aren't green, after all.

.

.

"Is it just me or is something moving in there?" Lily points to the abandoned warehouse. Teddy glances over.

"Someone or something?" He asks, flicking her red hair off it's resting place on his shoulder and trying so hard not to think about Rosie's birthday which is in two months.

Lily stands a little taller and peers closer.

"I think it's a person." She says, raising her camera. "I can see their outline." She goes to move forward but Teddy finds himself gripping her arm. She turns to him, mouth slightly open, unspoken words demanding an explanation and he fumbles under her piercing glare.

"Er- be careful- you- I-"

"I don't know wether you're trying to be protective or possessive, Teddy." She says, hoisting her camera and aiming for the warehouse. "But either way, please let go before I jinx you."

He sheepishly drops her arm, too embarrassed to tell her that he wants more than their secret yearly hook ups in dusty sheds with trailing cobwebs.

She edges closer and something clanks in the warehouse and Teddy's heart finds his throat. He's not trained for this- not used to this- he's never been in any real danger before- Lily's going to get hurt- what will he do?-

"Lily!" He hisses. "Lily, come back! It could be dangerous- you don't know what's out there- your dad's going to _murder_ me, that is if you don't get us killed first-"

Lily spins round again and rolls her eyes and again Teddy is reminded that she's just a teenager.

"Stop flapping, Lupin." She says. "And get behind me. You're the reporter, right? I'm just here to take pictures."

There's a note of bitterness in her voice and he wants to tell her that she's worth so much more than a broken camera and a few blurry photographs but he's always been a bit of a coward when it comes to Lily Luna so he hurries into place and draws his wand, creeping after Lily and praying that the sound they heard is just the wind echoing through the trees.

.

.

Lily Luna lives for danger.

Stories and tales like that of her father, Chosen One, The Boy Who Lived, nothing like the mundane nineteen years she's endured so far.

This is the closest she's come to real danger, creeping around a desolate warehouse in the middle of nowhere, Teddy at her elbow, and a strange figure skirting around the outskirts.

And she _lives_ for it.

She rushes forward at the sound of slapping footsteps, ignoring Teddy's cries and protests as he chases after her, his pen and notepad thudding to the ground.

It's exhilarating and just as she imagined, staring in the face of danger, Teddy at her heels, and the villain waiting in warehouse for the showdown of the century.

"Lily! _Lily_!"

She pretends she can't hear him as her hair whips in a frenzied storm around her face, shoes clopping on the cold stone floor.

The warehouse is silent.

Empty. Chilly. Lonely.

"Lil-"

Teddy's reverberating voice is cut off by a black shadow flitting past Lily, silky, dark fabric brushing her arm.

She spins, caught off guard.

"Who's there?"

And then the warehouse explodes.

Shrapnel and splinters fly everywhere and Lily ducks, sheltering her face from the oncoming onslaught, closing her eyes and praying that Teddy had the same sense she had.

Her fingers scrabble for her wand and she coughs, putrid ashy smoke filling her lungs.

"T-Teddy!"

The warehouse is no more, only a collapsed pile of metal and timber, and the ominous black robed figure darting between the wreckage.

"H-Hey!" Lily manages to call, stumbling to her feet and staggering after the person. "You! What are you playing at? You almost k-killed-" her voice dies as she is slammed against a tree, breath building in her throat as she splutters, an unforgiving hand holding her still. The black robed man removes his mask and Lily sees Blaise Zabini's son scowling down at her.

"S-stop!" Lily wheezes, her hands flailing and legs kicking as she tries to remove her attacker. "Get- off of-me!"

"What are you doing here?" Zabini asks coldly, his wand pointing to her head and Lily is many things but stupid is not one of them. She tells him in rasping breaths the answer he wants to hear.

"Where's Lupin?" He demands once she's finished and she can feel her face going as red as her hair.

"I- don't- know! Let- me go! -the fuck is- wrong with- you-" her eyes widen in shock. "You're- not really- Death Eaters?"

Zabini laughs, a cruel, clipped sound.

"The penny finally drops, Potter." His hand presses harder against her throat and Lily's voice extinguishes in her oesophagus as her body goes limp, eyes closing, vision blurring-

" _Lily_!"

There's a blast of red and suddenly the hand is released and Lily keels onto the ground, slumping into the tangled, overgrown grass, choking breaths escaping her as she is caught up in a flurry of blue hair and panicked panting and wide brown eyes, shaking her, shouting at her.

"For _Merlin's sake_ , Lily! What did you think you were doing? You could've been killed! Christ- you're too young, you're _nineteen_ \- _bloody hell_ \- why do you have to play the hero- you're not your father- you're just a _kid_ -"

And those are the words that puncture her chest and leave her heart bleeding all over the floor.

Through her dim vision, she can see her brothers and a group of aurors striding across the common to meet them.

"I _hate_ you." She snarls at Teddy and watches gleefully as his face crumples like her heart.

Teddy's holding her face in his hands and he's crying and now so is she as she pushes the blue haired boy away and collapses into Jamie's arms, sobbing and trying to hold her small, pathetic universe together.

"Filthy blood traitor." Zabini spits as he is dragged away.

.

.

They don't speak when they get back.

Her camera got destroyed in the explosion and his notepad lies forgotten at the scene of the wreckage so there's nothing to collaborate on.

His boss gently suggests another go, something less high stakes, but Lily tosses her hair and demands to switch partners and, surprise, surprise, she ends up back in the office with Lysander, eating boxes of coffee filled truffles and sniffing tulips which make her eyes water.

It's a dull life, Lily Luna.

.

.

Teddy types up the report, dutifully writes about the hidden, undercover Death Eaters who need to be exposed, prints it in the Quibbler and sends a copy to Harry so he can read it through.

He doesn't think about Lily.

Not how her smile lights up the world or how her eyes blink inquisitively, mischievously, or how her voice hissed " _I hate you_ " and tore him up on the inside.

Harry comes to see him two weeks after The Incident, as Teddy has decided to call it, and at first, Teddy assumes it's about the report.

"Did you want to clarify something?" He asks in a bored tone, adjusting his coffee mug. "Or perhaps you'd just like to put me out of my misery since I'm so obviously enjoying my desk job here."

His godfather blinks.

"You sound like Lily." He says and perches on the chair opposite Teddy's desk. "She's really upset about Zabini; they went to school together, you know."

Teddy doesn't have the heart to tell him that his daughter couldn't care less about meeting an old school foe in the deserted woods.

"She won't come out of her room." Harry glances around, his eyes landing on Lily's empty desk, Lysander's dying bunch of tulips. "Ginny made lasagne last night and Lily wouldn't even touch it. Did something else happen in that warehouse, Teddy? Something she won't tell me?"

Teddy looks his godfather straight in the eye and lies, feeling horrible, slimy shame sliding down his back as Harry nods and puts down a bottle of firewhiskey with a small wink.

"Don't be a stranger, Ted." He says and disappears, leaving Teddy with heavy, weighty guilt gnawing at his stomach.

.

.

Jamie drops by two days later.

Teddy's starting to think Vic's sending people to check up on him and he can't tell people enough, he's fine, _fine_ , **fine**.

"Hi." Jamie says and plops down in the chair in the same irritating way Lily did, and god, he misses her.

(You can't miss what wasn't yours, Teddy).

"So, mum thinks you're dead or quite possibly been kidnapped because you have not been round for exactly a month and she wants you round for dinner tomorrow, no excuses."

Jamie says this all very quickly and then helps himself to a shot of firewhiskey from the bottle still standing on the desk.

"I'm not in the mood." Teddy says and Jamie sighs.

"Haven't you grown up fast?"

Teddy quirks an eyebrow.

" _Boring_ Teddy. Where's the boy that snogged Vicki on the train platform, eh?"

Teddy flinches but Jamie doesn't seem to notice.

"Pad Thai." The younger boy tempts, wafting the offer of deliciously cooked food under Teddy's nose like a bone for a dog. "Prawns. Noodles. Chicken-"

"Oh, alright!" Teddy says, unable to hide the small smile which crosses his lips. "Tell Ginny I'll be there at six."

"Brilliant." Jamie beams and stands and Teddy has to wrench the firewhiskey from his hands. "She'll be delighted." He frowns a little. "Maybe you can cheer Lils up too. She's been practically comatose since the incident with Zabini." He grinds his teeth a little. "Bloody git's not so smug now."

Teddy remembers the rumours of Zabini's fabulous black eye.

.

.

Lily spends her days sulking and owling Roxy.

Rosie still finds it hard to speak to her after the Scorpius incident and Roxy's always been a better listener than Lucy, Molly, and Dom. Vic's out of the question, really.

 _Stop moping_ , Roxy wrote in her last letter, _you're nineteen for god's sake. Live your life. It's yours to do something with._

But all Lily can see when she shuts her eyes is that disgusted, terrified look Teddy gave her as he yelled at her, and all she can hear are those horrible words she hissed- " _I hate you._ "

Lily's never been very good at expressing her emotions.

She purposely kissed Rosie's crush in order to get someone to look at her, for crying out loud.

No, Teddy's always been more than a someone.

.

.

She goes down for dinner because Al bribes her with chocolate cake but who should be sitting at the table but Teddy, his eyes catching hers as he flushes red, clearly embarrassed.

She wishes she could bolt out of the room.

Unfortunately, Jamie steers her to a seat and pours her a glass of water, ignoring the uncomfortable look presiding on her face.

Dinner is awkward, strained, but nobody seems to notice that except Lily and probably Teddy.

She accidentally brushes his hand when she reaches for the prawn crackers and his foot fortuitously nudges her leg as he stretches after his meal.

They lock eyes precisely twice and both times, he looks away first, the tips of his hair blushing into a pale pink.

She corners him after the food is eaten, after her family has retired to the living room, because the two of them can't keep going on like this.

"I'm not mad." She tells him, folding her arms adamantly.

"Neither am I." He answers and, with a touch on her arm that lingers a little too long to be friendly, he disappears into the lounge.

It's not sorted, no way in hell, but it might be okay again.

.

.

Rosie's twenty first birthday is big, exciting, and Lily should be looking forward to it.

She can't because she's too busy crying.

Lysander dropped round earlier, a bunch of his infamous tulips in hand, the ones that she suffers through because she likes him, and an apologetic look on his face.

He didn't even have to say anything.

"You're breaking up with me." She says straight away and he looks astonished. "There's someone else, isn't there?"

He nods, at least having the decency to look ashamed ( _not like you can judge, Lily Luna, you've been fucking the same guy since you were fifteen_ ).

"Dom." He says softly and all Lily knows is that she's lost two of her men to Veela children.

"I'm happy for you." She says and points him to the door. "Now take your tulips and get out."

She makes it upstairs before she starts weeping.

She and Teddy may be secret, something just for them, but she and Lysander, they were special, romantic, something more than making love in dirty old sheds while the world revolves around them.

.

.

Lysander's supposed to be going to Rosie's party but screw him, _Teddy_ is going to be there and it's the one night of the year they can forget everybody else and the looks and the stares and come together.

Lily dresses, in her opinion, slutty; a short, fairly tight silver dress which hangs off one shoulder and her hair curled around her shoulders, voluminous eyelashes protruding from her lids.

She looks stunning.

Not in her eyes.

.

.

She meets him in the garden shed at precisely eight o clock, her heart thumping with anticipation as she knocks twice and slips inside, leaving heart broken, bitter Lily Luna outside and emerging a butterfly in the dusty, dirty shed.

Teddy kisses her as a greeting, pressing her up against the blacked out window, his hands roaming up and down her body, her fingers sliding through his hair and it could almost be that nothing's changed.

They're sloppy, messy, and somehow her lipstick ends up smeared across the floor and his aftershave lingers on her body for longer that it should.

Her dress is slightly torn at the sleeve from where she so hastily ripped it off and his tie is askew but they're giggling, laughing, becoming Teddy and Lily again, and he sweeps her off her feet and whispers in her ear "later, later, later."

They meet again at two in the morning, once everybody else in finally asleep, and she's addicted to this love, this passion burning in her heart as she and Teddy become one, red curls and spiky blue hair blurring together and eyes locking, hands slipping lower than they should and it's hard to ignore the ten years separating them like a river cutting through the land.

It's dangerous, this love she's become addicted to, but Lily Luna loves the risk so she wipes the lipstick from her mouth and kisses Teddy harder, so hard she can almost taste blood.

.

.

It's not until summer that she realises she's fucked.

It's not until Teddy hops on a plane to spend two months with Uncle Charlie in Romania and she breaks down _crying_ in her room that she realises she's too invested in this relationship which doesn't exist outside four cobwebbed, run-down walls.

It's when Rosie points out that she's pining, Al mentions gently that she doesn't spend any time with them any more, Ginny says that she seems so distant, that Lily knows she's in way over her head.

She never planned to love Teddy Lupin but sometimes the Fates have strange things in mind.

 _._

 _._

He doesn't think about her much that summer.

Maybe he's cured, maybe he's indifferent, all he knows is that the rare times Lily Luna crosses his mind, his heart doesn't swell and his pulse doesn't get faster.

There's a dragon in Romania the exact shade of Lily's hair but he doesn't notice this like he would've a year ago.

Is that a bad thing?

It's, to be frank, _boring_ without Lily in his life.

Not thinking about her, not obsessing over her eyes or her lips or the way she whispers " _Teddy_ ," on those secret, stolen, midnight rendezvous.

He wants to love her but life has never been as simple as that.

.

.

The first day she goes back to work after her two week holiday in Cornwall with her parents and brothers, she sees him.

Teddy, tall and tanned, his hair coloured it's usual bright blue, his eyes crinkling as he laughs at a joke Louis' just told.

" _Teddy_!" She breathes and ignores the fact that _Teddy's boyfriend_ is standing next to him as she throws her arms around Lupin's neck.

"You're friendly today." Louis comments casually and Lily spins, but there's no malice in her cousin's eyes. He's sincere, honest and she doesn't deserve a family like this when all she does is snog other people's beloveds.

Rosie still can't look her in the eye.

Teddy doesn't return her hug but he smiles and pats her shoulder.

What?

"Hi, Lils. Good summer?"

He never calls her Lils.

"Oh- um, yes." She says, visibly flustered, pulling away from Teddy and going to greet her cousin with a kiss on his cheek. "What- about you? The dragons?"

Teddy's eyes light up.

"Oh, it was great. Charlie sends his love; he wants you to visit sometime."

"With you?" Lily says, hating the pathetic tone which drips from her voice. Teddy starts.

"No- no, at Easter or something. Perhaps Christmas, that's closer."

Then Louis whispers something in his ear; Teddy grins and her cousin waves her goodbye as they disappear down the corridor.

Teddy doesn't even glance back.

And Lily's left standing by her desk, Lysander glancing sheepishly over at her, her heart slamming into her new suede boots she'd worn to impress the blue haired boy.

.

.

It gets worse.

As the year drags on, autumn slowly fading into winter, leaves tumbling to frosty grounds, Lily's heart breaks a little more.

Before, she could always sense Teddy looking at her at work, now he barely even says hello.

She's being selfish, she knows this. Teddy is not hers, she lost that right the moment they decided to keep their affair confined to the garden shed.

Teddy and Louis belong together; they work perfectly, just the right amount of sass, the perfect volume of romance; nothing like she and Teddy who are a hurricane in the making.

Whipping and twisting and destroying everything in their path.

She doesn't have any right to be jealous; you can't envy what is only yours once a year, but seeing them cuddled up together at family parties and watching them exchange jokes at work makes her feel sick to her stomach.

She's _obsessed_ , _addicted_ to the love Teddy Lupin gives her and now he's not here, she can't focus on anything else because she _needs_ to feel him touch her, _needs_ to feel his breath on her skin, _needs_ him just as much as the air she breathes.

And she knows it's cheesy and that she's stuck in this never ending loop of all the cliches she swore she'd never be but, after all, love can be a funny thing.

(Right, Lily?)

.

.

Teddy loves Louis.

Maybe not enough to spend the rest of his life with or wake up next to every morning but it's a simple kind of love and he lives for it.

 _Complicated_ is Lily and fire and suffocation and struggling to breath through this abyss of lust they've both created together and _simple_ is Louis and homemade pizza and getting drunk on Saturday nights while they watch the sky.

Simple is home.

But, then, Teddy's always had an

adventurous streak.

.

.

At Christmas, they share a chaste kiss when they shouldn't, the first show of affection they've displayed out of the garden shed, but it's hard to judge wether it's lust or love when both parties are drunk off of firewhiskey and the Christmas celebrations they're too busy enjoying.

.

.

The next day, he wakes up mortified and scrubs his lips for an hour to try and get rid of the taste of Lily's lipstick.

She wakes up intoxicated by his aftershave and lost in a dreamworld where she and Teddy can fucking _look_ at each other without worrying about the repercussions.

.

.

Next year, at Rosie's twenty second birthday, they meet in the shed at nine o clock, an hour later than usual.

She arrives already out of breath, somebody else's cologne already on her dress and he waits with his shirt already tousled and crumpled because they've both sort of- maybe- almost moved on with their lives.

It's quick and clean and nothing like the last five years they've spent together and when they're finished, her lipstick is barely smudged and his hair isn't even ruffled and they're Teddy and Lily, falling apart together in different explosions as they tumble-

and together they make a disaster.

.

.

"I'm leaving." She whispers in his ear as he kisses her neck and he pauses to look at her.

"What?" There's a sort of brokenness in his voice that shouldn't be there.

"It's getting worse, Teddy." She pushes him off her and watches his eyes flicker with hurt. "I'm _obsessed_. I can't go a minute without thinking of these moments we steal in sheds and it's all wrong, Teddy, it's all so wrong, because you have a boyfriend-" she's crying now and he's gone white "-you already have someone to love and you shouldn't be fucking me every year and we shouldn't be looking forward to this- it's all fucked up, Teddy, it's all so fucked up..."

He lifts her chin with his hand, gently.

"Where are you going?" He asks softly.

"Away." She says through her tears. "Away from here. I _can't_ do this anymore, Teddy, I can't spend my days looking at you, imagining what we could do if we were together- I'm going to go _insane_ if I stay here any longer."

"I don't want you to leave." He says and he sounds so pathetically upset that she wants to apologise and kiss him and shove him against the wall and do all things Lily Luna can never do because they're not made for each other.

If they were cut out of stars and pieced back together again, she and Teddy would still never make a whole.

"I'll be back in a year." She whispers, her voice barely audible. "You have a year, Teddy. Decide what you want. I'll be waiting."

And she slips outside, crying bitter tears of frustration as mascara stains her cheeks and her foundation drips onto her dress and she's Lily Luna, falling apart by herself.

.

.

Back in the shed, everything inside of Teddy Lupin collapses and he sinks to the floor, tumbling into an explosion alone.

.

.

She travels the world and visits Athens, and Paris, and Rio and has spectacular adventures all by herself, dancing and spinning in the pale moonlight, her hair lighting up the darkness like she's on fire and she tries to pretend that she doesn't love Teddy Lupin.

He stays behind and works his nine to five desk job, kissing Louis and not meaning it, and hating himself more and more every day because he's a coward; he can't tell Louis the truth and he managed to let Lily slips through his fingers.

When the year's up, he'll propose to her.

(Lust is _not_ love, Teddy.)

And they've never been the couple who sat together and watched the stars or bought each other flowers on Valentine's Day and maybe there's never been any romance between them at all.

Just a hell lot of lust and two horny adults who should probably know better by now.

.

.

Weeks blur into months and months dredge themselves slowly by until it's just days before Rosie's birthday, days until Lily gets home.

He misses her, more than he should, and there's not been one single postcard or owl or letter and maybe deep down he knows something's wrong, and when she gets back, Pansy Parkinson's son has put his ring on her finger.

And everything inside of Teddy Lupin's messily cluttered world shatters.

She's giggling, flouncing about, hugging her relatives and wiggling her hand, the sparkling diamond mocking him, taunting him and maybe it's not a surprise that she broke her promise to him.

.

.

On the eve of Rosie's birthday, Teddy and Lily meet in Grandma Weasley's garden shed.

He wasn't even sure if she'd show up but here she is, closer to him than she's been in a year and he can smell new perfume on her clothes, one she never used to wear before. His stomach turns.

There's no sex or groans or even kisses or anything that even vaguely resembles their previous meetings of years ago, just two adults standing awkwardly close to each other, a glittering ring on her hand which shouldn't be there but is because she chose someone else.

"You said you'd wait for me." His voice is pathetically broken. Her answer is short, clipped, simple.

"I stopped."

And his world falls apart in two bittersweet seconds.

.

.

Her wedding is the following autumn.

Golden red leaves swirl around the open air church, red haired Weasleys and brunette icy Parkinsons hugging and exchanging pleasant greetings and blue haired Teddy feels like the odd one out.

He sees her first, when the archway curtains flutter open, and there she is, catastrophically stunning in a sleeveless white dress, her red hair tumbling loose around her shoulders.

His heart stops as he stares, hoping against hope that she'll turn to look at him, wink, pull a funny face and hug him but she doesn't.

She's moved on.

And she walks up the aisle looking devastatingly beautiful.

.

.

He manages to move on as well. Eventually.

Louis and him fizzle out, both seeking more than their drunk Saturday night ramblings at the sky.

Teddy can't say he's disappointed.

He marries Rolf Scamander's nephew and together they adopt Susan Bones' infant daughter when the woman passes of Dragon Pox.

He sticks with his nine to five Ministry job, sometimes stares forlornly at the desk which was once Lily's (she's long abandoned her post, works as a model for Witch Weekly now) and goes home each night to love and laughter with his husband and daughter, ignoring the ache which gnaws at his stomach and tattoos _her_ name on his skin.

And they used to be Teddy and Lily, passionately angry at the world and it's stereotypes, but now she's married her older brother's good friend and he's wedded to the famous author's relative and they've become magnificent cliches in themselves.

.

.

On the eve of cousin Rosie's thirty second birthday, two strangers meet in a garden shed.

It's been ten years since their last meeting and her hair is shorter, thinner, her lipstick less loud, and he dresses more sensibly, crayon stains on his shoes.

"I'm a mother, Teddy." Lily whispers and glances down at her wedding ring. "Didn't you know?"

Of course he knows. He wasn't stupid, calling this meeting tonight. He's spent ten years pining over the girl he lost and he wants it to end, now.

"You're a dad." She continues and throws back her head and laughs a little. Bitterly. God, he misses her laughter. "Fucking ironic, eh, Teddy? Five years of sex and the children we have are with other people."

He looks at her for a long time, eyes locking as they remember the nights they breathed together, stomping out cigarettes and giggling, drunk off of firewhiskey and the danger they were getting into.

They seem a hundred years away from the people they used to be.

"Are you happy?" He says finally.

"Very much so." She whispers and, framed by the moonlight, two strangers share a last, bittersweet hug.

.

.

 **Fin. Angsty, I know. Lemme know what you guys thought. Hope you enjoyed and, as always, have a great day/night! Xx**.


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